85 and 1802.

FOOTNOTES:

[10] Letter to L. Gaylord Clark, _Lippincott's Magazine_, April, 1870.

[11] _Constitutional History of the United States_, i. 63.

[12] The statement that King assisted Hamilton is made by H. C. Lodge,
in _The Life and Letters of George Cabot_, p. 84.

CHAPTER V.

EXCURSIONS.

In one of his political papers Webster sketches the average American of
his time: "He makes a variety of utensils,--rough, indeed, but such as
will answer his purpose; he is a husbandman in summer and a mechanic in
winter; he travels about the country; he converses with a variety of
professions; he reads public papers; he has access to a parish library,
and thus becomes acquainted with history and politics, and every man in
New England is a theologian." I have already intimated that Webster
dissipated his strength, and it is only fair to state the facts in the
light of the conditions under which he lived. In the unorganized and
fluent state of society there was little room for a specialist; or, to
change the phrase for a more exact one, there was too much room. Every
educated man was called upon to occupy himself with a great variety of
tasks. The demand made by the republican experiment was very great.
People had practiced local self-government under monarchical supervision
for a long time; now they were bound to extend the sphere of their
political activity, and in the adjustment of the new machinery there was
abundant opportunity for all the ingenuity and wit of the educated class
to exercise itself. Then there was a great impetus given by politics to
the democratizing of the nation, and, in the rapid social changes of the
day, the educated class found itself well shaken up with the mechanic.
The terms which Webster employs of the average American may easily be
applied to all classes. Nice distinctions of rank and occupation could
not easily be maintained in a country where there was vastly more land
than could be tilled, where enterprise of every kind was limited only by
lack of labor, and where every citizen had his hand on the wheels of
government.

In a conventional way Webster would be classed amongst the educated men
of the country: he had received his diploma at one of the chief
colleges; his occupations were intellectual; his profession was the
liberal one of the law. Yet in a more real way he was a farmer's son,
and though he ceased early from manual labor his mental affiliations
were with t